A light from the East” “

The growth of the number of Catholics of Eastern rite in Great Britain poses to the English Church the question of dialogue between the Latin and Western tradition and that typical of Eastern Europe. This need has prompted ROBIN GIBBONS , lecturer at St. Mary’s College in Twickenham (England) and coadjutor in the Melchite parish in London, in an article published in the last number (January-February 2005) of the English journal “The Pastoral Review”, to reflect on the fact that the Eastern Church in communion with Rome represents a source of enrichment not only for the Catholic Church itself, but is also a key element in dialogue with Orthodoxy. The Eastern rite has often been considered an obstacle to ecumenism. But the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI and most recently John Paul II have repeatedly stressed that unity and exchange with the Eastern tradition are essential prerequisites to rediscover the “one Church of Christ”. The problem, says Gibbons, is that too little is known and understood of the legacy of our Eastern tradition”. AN “UNRECOGNIZABLE” RELIGIOUS CULTURE? “British religious culture has been transformed and has become almost unrecognisable over the last fifty years”, says “The Pastoral Review”, citing the decline of religious practice in the major Christian Churches. In response to a greater attention of public opinion and institutions to church affairs, and the emergence of minority groups belonging to the other great world religions and Christian and non-Christian fundamentalist groups, the ecumenical process seems to have run aground. Nonetheless, “it is also important to recognize the positive aspects of change”. They include “the revival in London and in the major UK cities of Orthodox and Eastern-rite communities, including the Eastern Catholic communities united with Rome”. Born in London during the years of the Soviet regime, they have grown in recent decades, especially as a result of immigration from Eastern Europe”. FINDING THE ROADS TO UNITY. “Many exponents and observers within the Catholic Church were already at work in the last century in promoting unity with Eastern Europe”: numerous experiences of dialogue and meeting with these churches were born, thanks not least to the impetus given by Vatican Council II and by the document of Paul VI Orientalium ecclesiarum. They include “the liturgical movement, which has tried to link Orthodoxy and Catholicism”, and the British Association of iconographers, linked to the Benedictine Order. Despite that, “the tragedy is that many in the Catholic Church in the West have not yet recognized the fact that, to be fully ‘catholic’, in the theological and traditional sense, Christianity of East and West must find the road to unity. “John Paul II has never minimized the divisions between Rome and the East, but nor has he diminished the legitimacy and authority of the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome”. Moreover in Orientale Lumen John Paul II has identified precisely in the Church of Eastern rite united with Rome the possible means to rediscover unity and revive dialogue with Orthodoxy. Latin Catholics, together with Anglicans and Protestants, have devoted great efforts to ecumenical dialogue with Orthodoxy and the Christians of the East, while “the consciousness of their presence in England has been steadily growing”. But Catholics of Eastern rite in communion with Rome have always remained “silent partners at the table of ecumenism, tragically unknown or misunderstood by their Catholic brothers and sisters”. A SIGNIFICANT EXPERIENCE. It was just the experience “of many years as coadjutor priest of the Greek-Melchite parish of St. John Chrysostom in London” that led the author of the article to discover “the incomprehension of Latin Catholics in Catholics of Eastern rite” and the need for Latins to understand “the real theological position and identity”, the liturgy, spirituality, history and tradition of the East. For ignorance has in some circumstances given rise to tensions or injuries. This dialogue “is a salutary lesson for those of us who think that the Church can celebrate its liturgy and its sacraments in a particular way. The Eastern Churches bear witness to the ancient origins of Christianity and are a constant reminder of the fact that the Church was born in the Middle East, in Jerusalem, and not in Rome, and that we can only fully understand the Church if we return to these roots”.